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date: 19 February 2025

Global Actors: Networks, Elites, and Institutionslocked

Global Actors: Networks, Elites, and Institutionslocked

  • Mikael Rask MadsenMikael Rask MadsenDirector of the Centre for the Study of Legal Culture, University of Copenhagen
  • , and Mikkel Jarle ChristensenMikkel Jarle ChristensenFaculty of Law, Centre of Excellence for International Courts, University of Copenhagen

Summary

Over the past several decades scholars have intensively debated what factors drive globalization. Answers have ranged from the emergence of the information society and the global economy to value-conflicts embedded in different civilizations. A different yet closely related question is who is driving globalization? That is, however, much less studied, even if it is arguably key to making global governance intelligible. A whole list of actors seem to offer possible answers to the question of who the globalizers are: Are they global institutions such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) or the International Criminal Court (ICC); communities of experts providing technocratic solutions; transnational networks of activists seeking to alter global and national politics by pursuing, for example, environmental or human rights agendas; or are they powerful individuals forming transnational elites taking the fate of the global society in their hands at a safe distance from ordinary politics in places such as Brussels, New York, or Davos?

Subjects

  • Political Institutions
  • Political Sociology
  • Politics, Law, Judiciary
  • World Politics

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